34 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



A man often sits or stands on the drag, and the girls ride on it 

 for fun. Usually two yoke of oxen are employed. At the floor 

 we halted at, the oxen were not muzzled, and were feeding freely, 

 but they often are so, as we saw at other floors. 



A little further on we came upon two women grinding at the 

 mill. A pair of circular stones, one placed on the top of the 

 other, are used ; the upper fitted with a straight upright handle, 

 the thing being in fact a simple quern. Two women standing- 

 facing one another, catch hold of the handle, one at the top, the 

 other lower down, and they send the upper stone round at a 

 good pace, each exerting her strength when the handle is 

 furthest off from her, and thus pulling to the best advantage. 



We next passed a small town, Eibeira Grande, where there 

 were numerous churches and a monastery, and a pretty patch of 

 public garden laid out by Mr. Brown, and planted principally 

 with Australian shrubs, Banksias and Melaleucas. At a road-side 

 inn, at which we pulled up to water the mules and refresh the 

 drivers, the church choir was singing remarkably well, practising 

 an ancient chant in a room overhead, with a piano as an accom- 

 paniment. None of the poorer houses in the town, or indeed all 

 over the island, have any glass in the windows, but only shutters. 

 Glazed windows are scarce ; only the priests, shopkeepers, and 

 merchants have them. 



We turned up inland from the sea, and mounted the high 

 land, making across the island again in a zigzag direction. At 

 last we gained the summit and came out upon a moor covered 

 with bog myrtle (Myrica fay a) , break fern, Woodwardia radicans, 

 heath {Erica azorica), and a splendid fern (Dicksonia culcita), 

 which almost forms a tree, and which has a beautiful golden brown 

 silky substance covering its young shoots, which is gathered and 

 used for stuffing cushions. Several tree ferns have a similar 

 substance developed on them. The moor looked very like a 

 Scotch moor, and stretched away far over the flat hill tops. 



There are 40 flowering plants found in the Azores, which 

 grow nowhere else in the world, Erica azorica, the heath, is one 

 of them. The rest of the plants are either South European, or 

 belong to the Atlantic flora, a name given to a series of plants 

 which grow on the Azores, Canaries, and Madeira, and nowhere 



